James’ 59th career triple double leads Cavaliers past Lakers

FILE: LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers (Photo By Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA – LeBron James, CC BY-SA 2.0)

CLEVELAND — LeBron James recorded his 59th career triple-double in front of Lonzo Ball and his brothers, Kevin Love scored 28 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers won for the 16th time in 17 games, 121-112 over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.

James finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists to move a tie with Larry Bird for sixth place on the career triple-doubles list. He also put the Lakers away with a dunk and short runner in the final two minutes.

Love scored 13 in the third quarter, when the Cavs opened an 11-point lead on the way to their 10th straight home win. Jose Calderon added a season-high 17 points for Cleveland.

Brandon Ingram scored 26 for the Lakers and Ball had 13 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

WARRIORS 112, MAVERICKS 97

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Kevin Durant had 36 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, and short-handed Golden State beat Dallas for its eighth straight win.

Klay Thompson scored 25 points, making all five of his 3-pointers and shooting 10 for 18 overall as the Warriors pulled away in the third quarter. Omri Casspi earned another start and posted his 17th career double-double with season bests of 17 points and 11 rebounds, and the Jewish forward shined playing on Jewish Heritage Night and the third night of Hanukkah.

The injury-plagued defending champions are still down three starters in Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Zaza Pachulia — while Nick Young joined the sidelined group with a concussion sustained in Monday night’s win over Portland.

Dirk Nowitzki had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Harrison Barnes added 16 points and seven boards against his former team.

KNICKS 111, NETS 104

NEW YORK (AP) — Courtney Lee scored 18 of his 27 points in the second half, Michael Beasley added 15, and New York held on to beat Brooklyn after losing star forward Kristaps Porzingis to a sore left knee early in the second half.

Porzingis motioned to the bench with 9:25 remaining in the third quarter after contesting a shot made by Brooklyn’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. The Knicks’ leading scorer had scored 13 points in nearly 18 minutes in the first half.

Enes Kanter had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Knicks, who earned just their second road victory of the season. Their only other one was Oct. 29 at Cleveland.

Spencer Dinwiddie had 26 points for the Nets, who have dropped the first two games to their city rivals. Hollis-Jefferson added 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting and Caris LeVert added 15.

TIMBERWOLVES 119, KINGS 96

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns had 30 points and 14 rebounds in his league-leading 23rd double-double, Jimmy Butler added 21 points and nine assists and the Minnesota Timberwolves cruised past Sacramento.

Andrew Wiggins scored 22 points for Minnesota (17-12), which has won three of four and is off to the third-best start in franchise history after 29 games.

Zach Randolph had 15 points and nine rebounds for Sacramento. George Hill scored 16 points for the Kings, who lost rookie point guard De’Aaron Fox to an injury in the first quarter.

PISTONS 105, HAWKS 91

ATLANTA (AP) — Andre Drummond had 12 points, 19 rebounds and a career-high nine assists, Tobias Harris added 19 points and Detroit snapped a seven-game slide with a victory over NBA-worst Atlanta.

Avery Bradley finished with 18 points and Langston Galloway scored 17 as Detroit won for the first time since beating Phoenix on Nov. 29.

Ersan Ilyasova had 23 points, John Collins scored 15 and Dennis Schroder had 10 assists for Atlanta, which dropped to 6-22 and has lost three in a row.