Damian Lillard went off for 51 points as the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Philadelphia 76ers to put pressure on amid the fight for a playoff spot in the West.
Philadelphia 76ers 121-124 Portland Trail Blazers
Lillard poured in 51 points and added seven assists to lead Portland to a 124-121 victory over a Philadelphia side that lost Joel Embiid to injury on Sunday night.
Portland moved within a half-game of the eighth-placed Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference race, sitting a half-game ahead of the San Antonio Spurs and one in front of the Phoenix Suns.
Josh Richardson scored a season-best 34 points and matched a season high of six three-pointers for the 76ers, while Embiid was one of six shooting with four rebounds before exiting with an ankle injury with 6:18 to play in the first quarter.
Alec Burks scored 20 points off the bench for Philadelphia, who played without Ben Simmons (knee). Tobias Harris added 16 points, Al Horford tallied 15 and Shake Milton had 11.
Lillard was 16 of 28 shooting while producing his fifth 50-point effort of the season and 10th of his career. CJ McCollum scored 16 points, Jusuf Nurkic added 15 and Mario Hezonja had 12.
Carmelo Anthony recorded 20 points alongside seven rebounds to move into 15th place in NBA history with 26,411 career points,passing Paul Pierce (26,397) and John Havlicek (26,395).
Portland connected on 47.3 percent of their shots, including 11 of 35 from behind the arc, while the 76ers shot 48.5 percent from the field and 14 of 30 from deep.
Brooklyn Nets 129-120 Los Angeles Clippers
Caris LeVert had 27 points and 13 assists as the Brooklyn Nets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 129-120.
Joe Harris scored 23 of his 25 points in the first half before fouling out late in the contest, Tyler Johnson had 21 points, Garrett Temple added 19, and Jarrett Allen finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Nets.
Kawhi Leonard had 39 points, six assists and four steals for the Clippers, while Lou Williams scored 18, Marcus Morris Sr. contributed 15 and Terance Mann chipped in 14.
The Clippers, playing the second game of back-to-back contests, rested All-Star forward Paul George and were without guard Patrick Beverley (calf) for the third straight contest.
Brooklyn held a double-digit lead for much of the fourth quarter before a four-point play by Morris cut the advantage to 120-114 with 1:54 left. After the two teams traded scoring possessions, Johnson made two foul shots with 59.5 seconds remaining to seal the win for the Nets.
The Nets outshot the Clippers 55.3 percent to 48.4 percent for the game, as well as connecting on 20 of 43 three-pointers compared to 13 of 36 for the Clippers.
Orlando Magic 119-122 Boston Celtics (OT)
Gordon Hayward scored 31 points and Jayson Tatum added 29 to lift the Boston Celtics to a 122-119 overtime win over the Orlando Magic.
Jaylen Brown collected 19 points and 12 rebounds for the third-place Celtics, who saw their slim chances to secure the second seed in the East end on Sunday as Toronto secured the spot thanks to a 108-99 victory over Memphis.
Nikola Vucevic had 26 points and 11 rebounds and Terrence Ross added 18 points off the bench for the reeling Magic, who have dropped four in a row.
Gary Clark's three-point play trimmed Boston's lead to 118-117 with 1:23 left in overtime before Tatum sank a long-range jumper and Daniel Theis added a layup.
Markelle Fultz's dunk made it a one-possession game, but Vucevic misfired on a three-point attempt as time expired.
Vucevic's 10-foot jumper gave Orlando a 112-107 lead with 48.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter before Tatum answered with a three-pointer and jumper to forge a tie. Tatum then blocked Ross' three-point win with 2.1 seconds left to send the game into overtime.
Hayward made seven of 10 shots for 18 points to pace Boston to a 55-51 advantage at halftime. Conversely, the rest of Celtics made just 13 of 36 attempts from the field during that stretch.
Houston Rockets 129-112 Sacramento Kings
Austin Rivers scored 41 points off the bench, James Harden tallied 32 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, and the Houston Rockets roared back from a sluggish start in their 129-112 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
The Rockets improved to 4-1 in the restart while the Kings were eliminated from playoff contention when the Trail Blazers beat the 76ers earlier in the day.
Houston played a second consecutive game without guard Russell Westbrook (right quad contusion), although Westbrook and guard Eric Gordon (left ankle sprain) are nearing a return.
Rivers helped compensate for their absences with his career high scoring, including 19 points on seven of eight shooting prior to the intermission to help the Rockets erase an early 13-point deficit. Harden added three steals while Ben McLemore chipped in 20 points for Houston.
Robert Covington added a double-double (12 points, 13 rebounds) with three steals as the Rockets maintained their grasp on fourth place in the Western Conference standings, holding a one-game lead over Oklahoma City.
De'Aaron Fox posted 26 points and nine assists for the Kings while Buddy Hield tallied 16 points off the bench.
The Rockets missed 14 of 18 three-pointers and committed six turnovers in the opening quarter to find themselves 36-23 down, before a 14-0 run in the second put them in the ascendancy.
Houston hit seven of 14 three points in the second to lead 61-56 at the half, coming out with a 22-9 blitz and surging to a lead that was as comfortable as 24 points at one stage.
San Antonio Spurs 122-113 New Orleans Pelicans
DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points and the San Antonio Spurs kept their playoff hopes alive with a 122-113 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Spurs improved to 4-2 during the restart and stayed in the thick of the tight battle for the eighth and ninth positions in the Western Conference, while the Pelicans fell to 2-4 in the restart and reached the brink of elimination.
Rudy Gay added 19 points, Derrick White scored 16 but missed most of the second half because of a bruised left knee, Dejounte Murray had 18 and Marco Belinelli 14.
JJ Redick led New Orleans with 31 points, Zion Williamson scored 25, Brandon Ingram had 17 and Derrick Favors had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The Spurs led by double figures for most of the game, but the Pelicans used a 28-12 run to cut the lead to four after three quarters.
Gay's four-point play started the fourth-quarter scoring and his dunk gave San Antonio a 92-81 lead with 8:39 left. New Orleans twice got within three points, but two free throws by Keldon Johnson, four points by DeRozan and two free throws by Gay gave San Antonio a 113-102 lead with 43 seconds left.
Memphis Grizzlies 99-108 Toronto Raptors
Marc Gasol capped a key third-quarter run with a three-pointer in his first game against his former team as the Toronto Raptors clinched the No 2 seed in the East with a 108-99 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Gasol was dealt from Memphis to Toronto in February 2019 and was a member of the Raptors' championship team in 2019. He contributed 10 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes to lift his team to a sixth win in seven games since the restart.
Pascal Siakam finished with 26 points to lead all scorers, while Norman Powell had 16 points, Kyle Lowry 15, Fred VanVleet 14 and Serge Ibaka 12.
Dillon Brooks top scored for the Grizzlies with 25 points, followed by Grayson Allen with 20, Ja Morant 17 and Brandon Clarke 16, Morant also supplying a game-high 10 assists.
The loss moved eighth-placed Memphis back into a playoff scrap with the likes of Portland, Phoenix, San Antonio and New Orleans and means they are now been beaten five times since the restart.
Washington Wizards 103-121 Oklahoma City Thunder
Darius Bazley scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 121-103 win against the Washington Wizards, moving into fifth place ahead of the Utah Jazz in the West.
Oklahoma City jumped ahead big early, scoring the game's first 10 points and leading by as many as 15 in the first, thanks to a hot start by Mike Muscala.
Muscala, who had missed two games in the concussion protocol, made his first start of the season because of injuries to the Thunder's top two centers.
He hit three first first-quarter shots from deep on his way towards putting up 14 points on the night, with the Thunder tying their season high of 18 three-pointers.
While the Thunder got Muscala back, they were still short-handed. In addition to being without backup point guard Dennis Schroder, who missed his fourth consecutive game after the birth of his second child, Oklahoma City were also without Andre Roberson and their top two centers in Steven Adams and Nerlens Noel.
Jerome Robinson led Washington with 19 points off the bench. Danilo Gallinari scored 20 for Oklahoma City while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had struggled since Schroder left the team, had 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
The Wizards remain winless in the NBA bubble, having dropped six consecutive games, with two left to play.