NBA Previews

The Los Angeles Lakers can assure themselves of a winning six-game road trip with a victory over the depleted Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. Behind a 40-point effort from LeBron James that included 9-for-10 shooting from 3-point range, the Lakers (42-33) defeated the Brooklyn Nets 116-104 Sunday to improve to 3-1 on the trip the team eyed as a major late-season challenge. Both the Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers had to vacate their shared

The race for playoff positioning will intensify on Monday night when the Chicago Bulls host the Atlanta Hawks in a battle for home court in the NBA play-in tournament. The Bulls sit in ninth place and the Hawks are 10th in the Eastern Conference, and the two likely will play in the opener of the play-in tournament. But the No. 9 team will host the game, in which the loser is eliminated. Chicago (36-39) leads

There are two weeks left in the NBA regular season, but the Indiana Pacers already have a playoff mindset. The Pacers will oppose the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night in Indianapolis, and the teams will complete a home-and-home set on Wednesday night in New York. The Pacers (42-33) enter play Monday night in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, the final guaranteed playoff position, with the Orlando Magic (43-31) up by 1 1/2 games in

The Boston Celtics complete an extended road trip when they face the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night. Other than back-to-back, last-minute losses in Atlanta, the Celtics have had a good road swing, going 3-2. They got back on track by winning 104-92 on Saturday at New Orleans. “The effort was there (and) the defensive execution as far as game plan was there,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of finding the right formula again. “It’s continuing

The Phoenix Suns and the New Orleans Pelicans are both down to their final eight games of the regular season. They’ll face each other twice in important games down the stretch, beginning with a meeting on Monday night in New Orleans, with the possibility of going up or down in the Western Conference postseason seedings. The fifth-place Pelicans (45-29) have a two-game lead over the seventh-place Suns (43-31) with Dallas squeezed in between. New Orleans

Wins have come in dribs and drabs for the Detroit Pistons this season. Their chances are always enhanced when Cade Cunningham is on the court. That was reinforced on Friday, when Cunningham piled up 33 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals in 37 minutes as Detroit (13-61) defeated Washington, 96-87. The Pistons will shoot for consecutive victories when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night. Cunningham, who sat out most of last

The Minnesota Timberwolves will go for their fifth win in a row when they face the Chicago Bulls on Sunday in Minneapolis. Minnesota (51-22) is coming off a 111-98 win on the road against the Denver Nuggets on Friday night. The victory pulled the Timberwolves even with the Oklahoma City Thunder and moved them a half-game in front of the Nuggets for the top spot in the Western Conference standings. Meanwhile, Chicago (35-39) is looking

Jalen Brunson had one of the best individual games in New York Knicks history Friday night. But all he was thinking about was the result — a loss for the Knicks that might have an impact on their playoff seeding. The Knicks will look to bounce back Sunday night, when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder in a battle of playoff-bound clubs. Both teams were off after playing Friday, when Brunson scored 61 points in

The Miami Heat head to Washington, D.C., on Sunday looking to stay within striking distance of a guaranteed playoff spot when they face the home-standing Washington Wizards. Miami (40-33) sat a game behind Indiana for the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference entering Saturday after the Heat blasted the Portland Trail Blazers 142-82 on Friday night. Bam Adebayo’s near-triple-double of 21 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists led the way in the most lopsided